Flash Back
by fEveRiSh NeEd
Summary: Edward's version of how he met Carlisle and became a vampire. All canon belongs to Stephenie Meyer.
1. Chapter 1

Flash Back

Part 1

1915

"Hello." The man at the door said pleasantly. "Is your mother home?"

"Yes." I replied. "Are you the doctor?"

"Yes, I am." He replied. "How is your father doing?"

"The same." I said and looked at the floor. I was only fourteen and my father was sick, again. He seemed to always be sick. My mother had called for a doctor as soon as his health had plummeted to an alarming level. This time though, they had sent a new doctor. He was very young, probably not more that fifteen years older than me.

I led him in and took him down the hall toward my father's room. "Mother." I announced the arrival of the doctor to her.

"Edward. Haven't I told you before not to answer the door? You should let one of the maids do that, its' their job."

"Yes mother." I replied and left the room. The doctor would be here for hours before he thought of something to give my father that would make him tired enough to sleep the sickness off and then claim that it was his knowledge in medicine that had cured him. He would be like all the others.

Bored, I went outside to play with the puppy my father had given me on my fourteenth birthday. It was a cute brown and white spaniel. I threw a ball a couple times and the puppy ran after it and brought it back. Then, the doctor came to the door.

"Edward." He said. "Would you please come inside? I have something to tell you and your mother."

"Yes sir." I said and headed for the door, the puppy completely leavening my mind.

I came in my father's room to find my mother crying in the chair next to him. He wasn't moving. I looked up at the doctor and asked, "Is he dead?"

"Oh no!" he replied. "He's still alive, but I don't know for how much longer. He is very sick and I don't think he is going to get better." His made my mother's sobs intensify.

"Isn't there something you can give him? Some foreign medicine or something?" I asked, looking into his eyes for the first time. He had the strangest golden eyes that looked like they should have belonged on the face of a young girl, not a man in his twenties.

"I'm afraid not." I said glumly. "Nothing that I know of."

"How long does he have, doctor?" my mother was able to get out between her sobbing.

"Maybe a couple years at the most." He replied. I suppose we had known this when he had gotten sick for the second or even third time, but we hadn't wanted to admit it, not like this doctor did. Did he not know who we were, to be so straight with us? No, this physician was different.

"Can he stay here, or does he have to go to the hospital?" was the next thing my mother was able to ask.

"He may stay here for know." He confirmed. "But will eventually have to be moved, when the pain intensifies, but that shouldn't be for a while still."

"Who are you?" I finally blurted out. I had been thinking this question since he walked in the door. I had never seen him before and had only heard that he was new to town.

"Edward." My mother scolded. "Don't be so rude."

"No." the doctor said to her "It's quite alright." He turned to me. "My name is Carlisle. Carlisle Cullen. I just recently graduated from medical school and moved here about two months ago."

I nodded, satisfied, and then looked to my mother. "I'm going to go for a walk." I told her. "I'll be back before dinner."

"Don't get lost." She cautioned. "Or hurt. One person dieing-" she choked on the word. "in this family is enough."

I didn't respond to her caution, but turned on my heel and left the room. When I got to the front door, the started running. I wanted to leave it all behind. My parents, the sickness, the doctor, all of it and I didn't know why. I loved my parents and the doctor had never done anything to me, I had only met him about an hour ago. But I had a funny feeling about him, like he wasn't what he seemed.

After I had run to the point where I was wheezing for breath, I stopped and started walking. There was a stream near by, so I went to go and sit on one of the huge rocks that sat by it. I often like to come here; it was peaceful and, as far as I knew, no one knew about it. It was my own secret hiding place, where I could go and let my worries wash away with the current of the stream.

"Are you alright?" It was a voice behinds me. I turned around and found the doctor standing a few feet away.

"Why did you follow me?" I asked him, throwing him the meanest glare I could muster up. "Don't you think I might want to be alone?"

"Yes, I could see why you wouldn't want to be disturbed." He replied and came to sit down next to me. "I just wanted to make sure you didn't try to do anything drastic."

"Like what? Throw my self in the stream and attempt to drown myself in three inches of water?"

"Something like that." He replied and gave me a knowing smile. "I did the same thing you are doing when I was your age." He continued and stared at the stream with his sparkling gold eyes.

"Why?" I asked. "Did your father die too?"

"Not exactly." He said. "Well, not then anyway. My mother died when I was still an infant, so my father was the only adult influence I ever had in my life."

"That doesn't sound so bad." I said. "At least he was healthy enough to raise you."

"You didn't know my father." He continued. "He was very strict and wanted me to be just like him; cruel and incapable of showing compassion."

"What did you do?" I questioned, now interested in what he had to say.

"I would run away to the forest, sit on the ground, in the middle of all the trees and pretend I was somewhere else. Somewhere were my mother was still alive and my father cared about me; the kind of family you have."

"But what good is a father who can't even get out of bed to do things with me?"

"Edward." He sighed. "Don't you get it? It doesn't matter that your father can't physically do things with you. You can still spend time with him and your mother, even if it's just sitting and talking with them." He smiled at me once more, ruffled my hair, and got up to leave.

"Wait." I called after him. He stopped and turned around. "How did your father die?"

"He died an old man." He said, and then disappeared.


	2. Chapter 2

Flashback

Part 2

1916

It was more than a year after my father had started taking treatments from the Doctor. Carlisle would come to our house once a week to give medicine to him and would then stay to visit with my mother and me. He had given us new hope and his abnormal actions had become a normal thing in our life.

My father, however, was not getting better, though he wasn't getting worse, so he continued to get a treatment regularly.

One day, I was waiting for Carlisle to come, but he didn't.

"Mother." I said, coming into the house.

"Your mother isn't here." Said the maid that was nearest to me. "She went out for a ride about an hour ago. I would suspect her back any minute."

"Thank you." I said and walked back out to the front yard to wait for Carlisle.

Another hour passed and Carlisle still didn't come and neither did my mother. "Where are they?" I wondered. "I should go out and look for my mother at least." I saddled my favorite horse and started down the road.

About a mile down the road, I saw two bodies on the ground. As I got closer, I realized one of them was Carlisle's and the other. . . was my mother. I cried out in fear, afraid that they were both dead.

"Carlisle!" I shouted and jumped off the horse right next to them.

"I'm fine." He said, "But I don't think your mother is."

"What happened?" I asked, bending down closer to my mother.

"I was running late today and was coming down the road and found her, just lying here."

"Where's her horse?" I asked.

"She must have fallen off." He confirmed. "I didn't think a simple slip could have done this."

"We need to get her home." I said.

"No." he said. "She needs medical attention. She probably has many broken bones."

"Fine." I gave in. "We can put her on my horse." He nodded and started to pick her up off the ground. I brought the horse over and we laid her over the back. Then, we started off as fast as we dared.

At the hospital, Carlisle took her to the examination table and then sent a nurse out to me.

"Doctor Cullen advises you to go home, Master Mason. You shouldn't keep your household worried. You can come back first thing in the morning."

I thought about it for a while. I didn't want to leave her, but I should go back and tell all the maids what had happened.

"All right." I decided. "If anything changes send a message to me, no matter what time it is."

"Yes." She replied and went back to help Carlisle. I got on my horse and rode home.

1918

A year and a half passed and my mother did get better, though not completely. She was always weak and stayed inside most of the time. She also had trouble walking, but was, never the less, her strong willed self. Father was still continuing his treatment, but was getting worse. In a couple days, Carlisle would take him to the hospital, where he would stay the remainder of his life. Mother was very upset and didn't want to let him go, but knew she must.

Since this year was my seventeenth birthday, I was old enough to marry and my mother was pushing the subject constantly.

"What about that the Crawell girl, Molly I believe her name is. She's very pretty and likes you."

"Mother." I said and shook my head in disgust.

"Now, now." Elizabeth." Carlisle would say. "You mustn't push him to do things he doesn't want to."

"No." she replied sarcastically. "I shouldn't. So he can end up like you Carlisle Cullen. Twenty six and even a girlfriend?"

"My case is different." He said. "My profession does not allow time for a spouse, no matter how much I would enjoy one." I tired to hold back the urge to laugh, but it was too strong. I started to laugh uncontrollably.

"And what is so funny, Edward?" she asked.

"You two argue like an old married couple." I managed between laughing gasps. Then they both started to laugh as well.

"You are right." My mother said, looking at Carlisle. He nodded in agreement. I thought I saw something of longing in his eyes, but wasn't sure. Then he closed his eyes again and started to laugh again.

I hadn't noticed, but there were footsteps coming down the hall, rapidly. One of the maids that looked after my father, Lucy I believe her name was, came rushing in.

"Doctor." She gasped. "Doctor we need you right away." He nodded and quickly got up.

"Stay here Elizabeth." He commanded and rushed down the hall.

"Go and help him." She ordered me and I followed him.

When I got to my fathers room, he was struggling for breath, but too weak to fight hard enough. And then the gasping stopped and he was still. Carlisle sighed and when he saw me, gasped in surprise.

"Edward." He tried to say but I ran out of the room and out of the house, to the stream where I went to think. Carlisle arrived a minute later.

"Edward. Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine." I said, throwing rocks into the stream to watch the ripples they made. He came up behind me and sat down next to me. "What did he die of?"

"He had a heart condition Edward, you knew that."

"No, I mean what did he really die of? I know it wasn't his heart; there was no way he could have turned that bad that quickly."

He exhaled deeply and then continued, "Have you heard of the sudden influenza outbreak?"

"Yes, but if he had had that, he would have been showing signs of it."

"This is only a theory, but I think he might have had the early stages of it. If he had, it would have just been too much for his body to handle."

"But then-" I began to feel dizzy.

"Edward, are you feeling alright?"

"Yes." I said. "As I was saying, he would have-" A sudden sickness came into my stomach and I threw up. I swayed back and forth and almost fell into the water, but Carlisle caught me.

"Edward! Edward! Can you hear me?" He shouted. I tried to answer him, but was to weak. He picked me up and started carrying me to the house. But I lost consciousness before we got there.


	3. Chapter 3

1917

When I woke up, I was in one of the rooms in the hospital. I looked around and found that there were lots of other people on beds all around me. Then I spotted my mother, right next to me. She was unconscious and looked even weaker than normal.

"Edward! You're awake!" I was Carlisle. "I was beginning to think I would never see your green eyes again."

"What am I doing here Carlisle?" I asked.

"It appears my theory about your fathers sickness was correct. I'm afraid both you and your mother have it, but you're both very strong and I'm sure you will pull though." he tried to smile sincerely, but I could see that he was very worried underneath.

"How is she?" I asked, weakly pointing at my mother.

"She's been better." he admitted. "But she's not too bad . . . yet." I sighed from exhaustion and lay back on the bed.

When I awoke again, my mother was sitting on a chair by my side. "Mother." I said.

"Shh, Edward." she commanded, lifting a hand to her lips. "You are too weak to talk. You should get as much rest as you can so you can get better.

"But what about you?" I protested. "You are even weaker then I am. You should be in bed as well."

"I'll lay down in a little while. Now you go back to sleep."

"Not until you are in bed." I retorted.

"Excuse me." said Carlisle, coming into the room. He sighed. "Elizabeth, what did I tell you? If you ever want to get better, you need to get some sleep."

"I will." she said. "Just as soon as I know Edward is doing alright."

"Well, I can tell you that." he pulled out a stethoscope and put it to my heart. Then, he opened my mouth and looked inside. "Yes." he said. "I think he is going to make a full recovery in no time."

"You liar." she sneered. "You are just saying that to make me get in bed."

"Maybe I am and maybe I'm not, that's a risk you will just have to take."

"Hmm." she said, but got up, walked over to her bed, and climbed in under the covers. "Happy?"

"Yes." replied Carlisle, smiling sweetly. "Now I have brought a warm drink for both of you. It won't taste too good, but it will make you feel better." He handed both of us a mug of steaming liquid. My mother grabbed it and started to drink while Carlisle helped me with mine.

"Why don't you let me do that?" she asked, looking at him angrily. "He is my son. I should take care of him while he is sick."

"No!" Carlisle said sternly. "You lay in that bed and get better. Don't worry about him. I have everything under control." She sighed, handed him the empty mug, and lay down fully in the bed, drifting off to sleep in a matter of seconds.

"She's been by your side for a day." Carlisle said. "She wouldn't eat anything until you woke up."

"What was in her drink?" I asked. There was no way she could have fallen to sleep that quickly on her own, not with her determination.

"Just something to make her sleep." he replied and took my mug and hers out of the room.

1918

It had been nearly six months since my mother and I had entered the hospital and neither of us was doing well, though she was much better than I was. In fact, all of the doctors were surprised that I had lasted even that long. All except for Carlisle. He knew I was strong enough. But not even he thought I would survive.

"Well." He said one day, after conducting his daily check of my mother and I. "The same as before. Go back to sleep now Edward, while I have a talk with your mother."

"Am I a child?" I asked. "That I should be kept out of conversations?"

"There are some conversations even certain adults should not be part of." He retorted. "Now go to sleep before I make you." I attempted to cross my arms in annoyance, but was too weak, so I just lay back and pretended to go to sleep.

They talked about nonsense for what seemed like an hour, then they stopped, and I can imagine Carlisle bent over to see if I was really sleeping. I must have fooled him because he started getting to the point.

"I don't know how long he's going to last." He said.

"What do you mean?" she asked, alarmed. "He looks healthy enough, compared to most of the people here, and he's lasted this long, hasn't he?"

"Yes, but his body is beginning to give up." he replied. "His heart beat was slower than normal today, and he's getting weaker. It may be only a matter of days, maybe a couple weeks."

"Well what about me?" she asked. "How much time do I have left?"

"You, Elizabeth, are actually doing a little better. Your heartbeat was stronger today and you aren't as pale as you have been."

"So you're saying that I'm going to live, but he isn't?"

"Yes. I'm afraid that is what it's beginning to look like."

"I won't live without him." She said, her voice beginning to break. "He is all I have left."

"I realize that." He replied. "But you must promise me something."

"What?" she asked weakly.

"You must promise that when he gets bad, you will not give up. Do you promise?"

"I can't." she replied honestly. "I can't promise you something like that because that is one promise that I can't keep."

"Can you promise me something?" she asked.

"What?" he replied, exasperated.

"No matter what happens to me, you will not let my son die."

He sighed deeply. "I will do everything I can for him then." he finally said.

"Good." She affirmed and passed out in her bed from exhaustion.

The next day, Carlisle started a new treatment on me, one he said he had learned in Europe some years before. It consisted of feeding me a blend of many unknown substances that where all mixed together into a drink. It was the worst tasting thing I could ever remember having, even worse then when I was little and the boys down the street had dared me to eat a worm in order to prove I wasn't a scaredy cat.

But I drank it nonetheless. I couldn't let my mother down like that. If anyone were going to die, it would be her. And if she did, I would still live, just for her.

I had to get better. I wasn't done living yet. There were many things I still wanted to do. I couldn't let this sickness get the better of me.

After that, I fell back asleep, or so I thought. I actually passed out and was out for a week. I had probably slipped into a shallow coma, but I came out of it.

"Edward." Carlisle said when I finally opened my eyes after so long. "Don't scare us like that." Instinctively, I looked over at mother to see how she was doing.

"How-" I couldn't get anymore out, but he must have understood because he replied, "She isn't doing to well. About a day ago she got very bad. I'm afraid it's only a matter of hours." He looked like he wanted to cry, but for some reason couldn't. I felt bad for him.

"Oh." I said and went back to sleep. I couldn't watch my mother die. That was just something I wasn't going to do, though I felt bad I couldn't be by her side; holding her hand at the very least.

I felt as if I had let her down, by just laying there. She wanted so much for me before she went and I couldn't even sit by her side to show her that I would be okay.

That was the last thing time I remember seeing her. The next thing I remember is my whole body feeling as if it were on fire. Then I was somewhere else though. And Carlisle was by my side, telling me it was alright.


End file.
